Confirmation of the proper operation of an aircraft or an aircraft system is typically required during the production of the aircraft system and/or in association with a maintenance procedure being performed on the aircraft system. This confirmation, often times, requires simulating or reproducing a particular environment or flight scenario of the aircraft. In order to reproduce the particular environment or flight scenario, a series of artificial maneuvers are created by manipulating one or more flight parameters over a range of values. This typically requires the time consuming process of setting breakers, disconnecting sensors, and connecting multiple pieces of automated test equipment with pre-programmed simulation scripts to reproduce the conditions.
The industry has recognized the value of providing an on-aircraft embedded capability to drive such simulations to alleviate the manual configuration and need for ground equipment. However, current approaches perform such simulations using high criticality software functions where design and implementation costs are at a premium. Hence, there is a need for improved systems and methods for simulating aircraft operations onboard the aircraft using lower criticality systems to reduce design and implementation costs. Other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.